[quote=GH]Most jobs are VERY dangerous – Stress etc. The most dangerous jobs are fisherman, so these guys should be paid millions of dollars a year by the dangerous jobs deserve more logic, loggers, pilots, farmers and ranchers – pay the illegals hundreds of thousands before even thinking about firemen or police. roofers then iron and steel workers, refuse workers, material collectors, machinery installation workers, drivers and sales workers, truck drivers and construction workers. ALL of these jobs ARE more dangerous than police or firefighter jobs, yet I don’t see you promoting vast pay increases for them?
My understanding is that convenience store clerks have a higher mortality rate on the job than police or firemen.
Don’t believe me?
I would challenge ANY government moron to get a better paying job in the private sector, and don’t keep on with that “risking their lives” garbage, because they are not even in the top ten.
The majority of firefighters in the US are volunteer and do the job because they WANT to. It is time to get real about public salaries and pensions and bring them into line with the current economic reality. WE CANNOT AFFORD THEM! We need to get rid of the whole lot and replace them with a system we CAN afford.[/quote]
The fishermen who have the high mortality rates are the ones who fish off the Alaskan coast. They actually make much more than firefigters do, as do many iron workers, lumbermen, etc.
Do realize that firefighters and cops are not merely being compensated because of the risks they face, they are being compensated because **VERY FEW PEOPLE ARE QUALIFIED TO DO THEIR JOBS,** contrary to the lies being spewed on blogs by people who have absolutely NO experience or knowledge about the jobs.
You have no idea how few people can actually work in the kind of environment they have to — while being shot at, and dealing with people who want to kill them on a daily basis — never knowing if the car you’re pulling over is occupied by gang members who wouldn’t think twice about shooting at cops, etc. (but you better not get all nervous and shoot them first!). Or working in very confined spaces with smoke and fire all around; or in 200-1,000+ degree heat, carrying around heavy packs and equipment while being surrounded by flames and smoke. Cops and firefighters have to pass rigorous physical, mental, and psychological tests, plus they have to pass thorough background checks just to start, and plenty of people are dropped during their probationary period. You really believe any Joe can do this? I don’t, and I know that for a fact.
Firefighters and cops provide services that are essential to any developed civilization. Without them, everything would fail.
BTW, you do realize that the fatality numbers are far greater for volunteers than for paid firefighters, right? The reason why they die and get injured more often is because they lack the training of professional firefighers. Also, you can’t have volunteer firefighters in an urban or suburban setting. Find one city that has a volunteer department, and compare their response times and outcomes to a professional department. You will then understand why you can’t have volunteer firefighters in areas with large populations.
Sorry, there are plenty of other people who are far more overcompensated than cops and firefighters…and we, the taxpayers, have to pay for them, too.
